Reset password

Londolozi Live

Membership overview

We invite you to sign up for a Londolozi Live account and join our growing digital family united by our respect for nature and love of the wild. Membership is free and grants access to the Londolozi community, numerous innovative services and benefits across our digital ecosystem:

Quick sign in/sign up

Tired of new passwords? Link your social media account of choice for instant, secure access to Londolozi Live.

Who are you?

Tell the community something about yourself and tweak your Londolozi profile. More of a secretive animal? Keep your profile private.

Track your activity

Earn badges for your profile as you interact with Londolozi and the community as you comment, share and explore our online ecosystem. All your activity with Londolozi is now connected.

Increase your ranking

Earn prowess and rank up as you interact with Londolozi Live and earn a spot on the monthly points leaderboard.

Discuss stories

Chat with other Londolozi Live Explorers and with your favourite Contributors from the Londolozi team about their photos and stories from the wild.

Curate your own galleryNEW

Add your favorite photographs from around Londolozi Live to your very own Favorites gallery, using the ♡ button, for others to enjoy.

Purchase full res photosNEW

Buy your favorite photos in full resolution, easily and securely, for download at any time from your Profile Page.

Home of leopards

Tell us which of the Leopards of Londolozi you've encountered during your visit! Their cards will move to your profile page collection.

Rent gear

Need a camera for your stay? Book it online and hassle free. Travel to Londolozi light and easy.

Londolozi Live q

How Do Birds Manage To Sleep On The Wing And Not Crash?

If you look up to the skies above Londolozi at the moment you might see a tiny bird called the Alpine swift flitting about against the blue. Imagine being this tiny bird, weighing just 77g and yet being able to fly all the way from North Africa or Europe to Londolozi on your own steam. Then when you get here, for the next 200 days, you don’t touch land once. What has bemused researchers and ornithologists for many years is how it is these birds sleep without falling out of the sky. At last, we finally have some answers!

A male Alpine swift photographed during flight. These birds feed on small insects and can spend up to seven months in the air without landing, even drinking on the wing.

In a paper published in Nature Communications, Niels Rattenborg from the Max Planck Institute and colleagues from several other institutions have offered the first proof showing that flying birds can sleep with either one half of their brains active, or with both hemispheres shut down at the same time. Remarkably, these birds can retain their navigational ability while in REM sleep. In other words, they can literally fly with their eyes closed.

This technique of sleeping is called unihemispheric slow-wave sleep (USWS), which allows one half of the brain to enter into deep sleep while the eye corresponding to this half is closed and the other eye remains open. Unihemispheric sleep allows an animal to get some rest, while also allowing it to maintain awareness of its surroundings. In fact, dolphins also use this technique to avoid drowning while they rest.

Rattenborg and his team did their experiment on frigatebirds, who often spend weeks flying nonstop in search of prey. What the study found was that these birds were flying upwards of 1,850 miles (3,000 kilometers) without stopping for a break. The birds would remain awake during the day while they looked for food and as the sun set they would enter into USWS for several minutes at a time.

A male frigatebird, easily recognisable by his red gular pouch, which he will inflate during the breeding season to attract females with. These birds feed predominantly on fish and squid chased to the surface by bigger fish such as tuna.

Occasionally, the birds even entered into REM sleep. You may think this is a crazy thing to do while flying but unlike us, where bursts of REM sleep are lengthy and involve complete loss of muscle tone, REM sleep in birds lasts for only a few seconds. That said, the resulting loss of muscle tone caused the heads of the birds to dip during flight, but amazingly it doesn’t affect their flight patterns.

A juvenile female great frigatebird, easily distinguishable from the male by its white underbelly. This bird is also known to scavenge from and kleptoparasitise other seabirds, snatching their food or stealing chicks from nests.

Despite their remarkable ability to sleep while flying, frigatebirds still get excruciatingly little sleep. On average, they sleep for only 42 minutes a day. This is similar to the giraffes we see here who only sleep for about 30 minutes every day. Unlike the giraffe who only needs minimal sleep, the frigatebirds are used to sleeping for about 12 hours a day when on land. This suggests that frigatebirds are seriously sleep deprived during their foraging flights. How they’re able to function with such little sleep remains a mystery.

A male frigatebird, settled down and incubating an egg. Despite being able to soar for weeks on wind currents, these birds form nesting colonies during the breeding season. The duration of parental care is among the longest of any bird species meaning frigatebirds are only able to breed every other year.

Despite gaining knowledge of how Alpine swifts fly while sleeping, we still have no idea why they choose not to land during their foray down south. Not all of them do this, and some certainly do land to breed. Certain individuals however, have been shown though electronic tags in a study by the Swiss Ornithological Institute, to spend more than 6 months aloft! Although I may be biased, South Africa’s Lowveld seems like a pretty fabulous place to spend a summer and to kick it back for a nap every now and again. The beauty of the unknown though is that it reminds us how relatively little we understand about the creatures we share the planet with, which means we can only continue to learn about the mystery we all form a part of.

About the Author

Amy Attenborough

Media Team

Amy worked at Londolozi from 2014 to 2017, guiding full time before moving into the media department, where her photographic and story-telling skills shone through. Her deep love of all things wild and her spiritual connection to Africa set her writing and guiding ...

11 Comments

on How Do Birds Manage To Sleep On The Wing And Not Crash?

Interesting blog Amy. We see the Alpine swifts often, always darting around. Did not realize that they never make landfall. Do they not come to Africa to breed? Do they make the mud nests underneath the bridges?

Now I have heard it all! Seemingly impossible, yet plausible when explained. What an incredible world we live in and in certain ways have only scratched the surface of knowledge and understanding. I’m going to have to re-read this again. Thanks Amy.

Yesterday saw a flock of Alpine Swift Birds (I think!) flying around our locality…was quite mesmerized watching them gliding and soaring about, the aerobics continued for 2-3 hours ….finally got an explanation and name of the bird that quite caught my heart 😀

It is really amazing what we continue to learn about other species that belong to this planet. May this knowledge be welcomed with a renewed energy to save the planet and all who dwell here. Thanks, Amy, for another learning experience for me. Happy Holidays

Associates & Awards

One moment...

Purchase a photograph

Our best photographs are available for purchase in digital format from the Londolozi Live Fine Art Store, via credit card. Purchasable photos are tagged with the Fine Art Store icon:

Once purchased, you will be able to download the full resolution, unwatermarked image (around 10Mb) from your profile page at any time. There are also different license options which you can choose from when adding the image to your cart.

To add any purchasable image to your cart, press the Purchase/Add to cart buttons next to an image, from anywhere across Londolozi Live:

Badges

Badges are awarded for achieving various things and come with a bunch of points in tow. Here's an example badge:

We've had the pleasure of hosting you here at Londolozi and together we've experienced the magic of the wild and now you're part of the family. You've let us know about your past visits while editing your Profile.

Londolozi Guest

Awarded for visiting Londolozi.

1000

prowess earned

for earning the Londolozi Guest badge

Each badge has a basic version, such as the Londolozi Guest badge above, and then a specialist version:

Londolozi Lifer

Awarded for visiting Londolozi three times.

2000

prowess earned

for earning the Londolozi Lifer badge

To see all the badges on offer and find out how to grab them, visit the Badge Showcase or click on any badge you happen to find out there in the wild.

Senior Digital Ranger

Digital Tracker

Master Tracker

Guest

We've had the pleasure of hosting you here at Londolozi and together we've experienced the magic of the wild and now you're part of the family. You've let us know about your past visits while editing your Profile.

You've earned the badge:

Londolozi Guest

Awarded for visiting Londolozi.

1000

prowess earned

for earning the Londolozi Guest badge

You're a specialist in this field and have earned the badge:

Londolozi Lifer

Leopard

On a trip to Londolozi you've been lucky enough to spot a leopard of Londolozi. You've encountered the leopard's profile card on the Blog and pressed the 'Spotted this Leopard?' button to record your sighting.

Lion Fanatic

Photographer

You've got an eye for the wilderness and have had your photographic journal from your time at Londolozi published on the Blog for others to enjoy. You found out how to submit your story by emailing us.

You've earned the badge:

Photographer

Awarded for submitting a photo story.

700

prowess earned

for earning the Photographer badge

You're a specialist in this field and have earned the badge:

Master Photographer

Storyteller

You've got the gift of the storyteller and have had a tale of your time at Londolozi published on the Blog for others to marvel at around the camp fire. You found out how to submit your story by emailing us.

Art Specialist

Good Work Foundation

You recongise the rare privilege it is to be able to experience the untamed beauty of the natural world, and have found an opportunity to give back through The Good Work Foundation, for the sake of others, your children and the wild. You've let us know about your donations while editing your Profile.

You've earned the badge:

GWF Patron

Awarded for donating to The Good Work Foundation.

500

prowess earned

for earning the GWF Patron badge

You're a specialist in this field and have earned the badge:

GWF Protector

Curator

You've curated your own Favorites gallery by ♡ing at least 15 photographs which you absolutely love from around Londolozi Live. If your Favorites gallery has caught the eye of the Fine Art site Editor and is featured, you've also earned the esteemed Featured Curator badge.

Londolozi Live

Membership Overview

Londolozi Live

Membership overview

We invite you to sign up for a Londolozi Live account and join our growing digital family united by our respect for nature and love of the wild. Membership is free and grants access to the Londolozi community, numerous innovative services and benefits across our digital ecosystem:

Quick sign in/sign up

Tired of new passwords? Link your social media account of choice for instant, secure access to Londolozi Live.

Who are you?

Tell the community something about yourself and tweak your Londolozi profile. More of a secretive animal? Keep your profile private.

Track your activity

Earn badges for your profile as you interact with Londolozi and the community as you comment, share and explore our online ecosystem. All your activity with Londolozi is now connected.

Increase your ranking

Earn prowess and rank up as you interact with Londolozi Live and earn a spot on the monthly points leaderboard.

Discuss stories

Chat with other Londolozi Live Explorers and with your favourite Contributors from the Londolozi team about their photos and stories from the wild.

Curate your own galleryNEW

Add your favorite photographs from around Londolozi Live to your very own Favorites gallery, using the ♡ button, for others to enjoy.

Purchase full res photosNEW

Buy your favorite photos in full resolution, easily and securely, for download at any time from your Profile Page.

Home of leopards

Tell us which of the Leopards of Londolozi you've encountered during your visit! Their cards will move to your profile page collection.

Rent gear

Need a camera for your stay? Book it online and hassle free. Travel to Londolozi light and easy.

sightings by Members

The Leopards of Londolozi

Since 1979 Londolozi has had a love affair with leopards. Over the last four decades, this dynasty has been chronicled by the many guides and trackers, past and present, who have worked at Londolozi.

You can visit the Mashaba 4:3 Female's dedicated profile page to access a rich trove of information about this leopard, including family tree, unique markings, territory maps, timelines and a host of stunning images and videos.